Media General sells The Tampa Tribune

Richmond-based Media General Inc. has sold the last of its newspapers, including its largest daily, The Tampa Tribune.

The Tribune and its associated print and digital operations were bought for $9.5 million by Tampa Media Group, Inc., a new company formed by the Los Angeles-based investment firm Revolution Capital Group.

The sale closed today. The deal is expected to yield net proceeds before expenses of about $2 million.

“It’s a bittersweet day for Media General to complete the sale of its last remaining newspaper group,” Marshall N. Morton, Media General’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “The Tampa Tribune was our largest and second oldest newspaper.”

Media General purchased The Tampa Tribune in a partnership in 1927.

Robert Loring, founder and managing partner of Revolution Capital Group, described The Tampa Tribune as a newspaper with strong brand and a long history of serving its community well. “We believe strongly in the value of local content,” he said in a statement.

With the deal, Media General has completed its transformation to a company focused on broadcast television and digital media. The company earlier this year sold 63 newspapers, including its flagship paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, to a subsidiary of Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway for $142 million. The sale included seven other daily newspapers in Virginia.

The company now owns 18 network-affiliated broadcast television stations and their associated digital media and mobile platforms.

Media General will report third-quarter 2012 results on Oct. 17. The company reported a net loss in the second quarter of $146.3 million, or $6.48 per share, including an after-tax loss of $131.7 million related to the divestiture of discontinued operations. Media General had second-quarter operating income of $16.4 million, compared with $6.2 million in the 2011 second quarter.

Revolution Capital Group was formed by a group of private equity, merger-and-acquisition and operational executives. The partners have worked on more than $15 billion in transactions with corporations such as AT&T, BASF, Bayer, General Electric, Hays PLC, IBM, Lucent, Motorola, Universal Group and Williams Communications.